


8th Scent:  Ducknapped

by Windryder1



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Detective, Duck - Freeform, Inaba, Other, Yôkai, cat/human hybrid, persona 4 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 03:23:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3835129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windryder1/pseuds/Windryder1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The young cat demon hates baths, and will only take them if her rubber ducky is in the tub.  But alas!  Ducky has gone missing!  Naturally, Naoto jumps to the worst conclusion.<br/>I think that it's investigation time!</p>
            </blockquote>





	8th Scent:  Ducknapped

8th SCENT: DUCKNAPPED

\----Three weeks after Naoto received her name at the police station...----

“Naoto! Bath time!” Her mother called.

The tiny, 12” tall cat demon stared at a small wooden tub of sudzy water on the bathroom floor. White bubbles dribbled over the edge, but she knew what those playful, disarming suds were hiding. Aside from the vacuum cleaner, she had only one other nemesis: water. She hated it. She hated everything about it. If it weren't for the fact that drinking it was a necessary evil to live, she wouldn't even go near it. Not that she fostered a fear of drowning, she simply didn't like it. Period. And yet every other day her mother forced her to bath in it. Water got in her ears, in her eyes, and when she'd get out, the cleaning lady would joke that she looked like a soaked rat. 

Only one thing in the world of Inaba made bath time remotely enjoyable; her rubber ducky. 

Naoto stood at the doorway, gripped the ends of the washcloth wrapped around her with her ears flattened, and refused to move. 

“Naoto, get in the tub,” Kaori Shirogane sighed. This was a battle she never thought she'd have to fight on a regular basis. “I know you hate bath time, but it'll only take a couple of minutes.”

Naoto looked up at her mother, then back to the tub. How could she get into that torturous thing, scrub herself down, then willingly let someone hose her off with the shower head? She looked around the room for her one salvation, but the little yellow rubber toy was nowhere to be found. She shook her head from side to side and told her in no short manner how she wouldn't move without Ducky.

The animal-demon's mews and odd words still came across as gibberish to Kaori, but she could decipher by Naoto's posture and searching eyes that a very important element of bath time was missing. “You can't find your duck? Maybe you misplaced it somewhere.”

Naoto shook her head sternly. She was sure she'd left him in the tub the day before after her last torture session. 

Kaori turned off the water when the tub reached its filled point, and crouched down to face her adopted family member. “I'm sure it's here somewhere. You can survive one bath without it.” She reached out, but Naoto stepped back. 

"No!" She cried out. She would never bath again until she found out what happened to Ducky and who took him. 

“Don't make me get your father... Naoto! Wait!” Kaori stood as the little cat dropped the towel and ran down the hallway back to her room. She watched her little bare butt and tail disappear up the stairs and sighed. This was a going to be a long night. 

This was a heinous crime that she needed to solve. Someone had kidnapped—or rather ducknapped—her friend. Naoto quickly threw on a pair of cotton shorts and a shirt, and started back for the door, but stopped. No...a good investigator needed something more... Her eyes landed on her Toothless plushie. The points of her incisors shown through her grin. In a quick flash, she snatched up the old fashioned detective cap the toy was wearing, placed it on her head, and tied the brown plaid inverness cape around her shoulders. Now she was ready to solve the mystery of who ducknapped Ducky. 

She paced the middle of the floor in thought, going over the events she was aware of from the past two days that could possibly contribute to this crime. No one knew of Ducky's existence in this house besides her family. He didn't have a record, so it was unlikely someone would put a hit out on him. But what if he had a sordid past she knew nothing about? She didn't even know where Ducky came from. Her mother had brought the toy home one day as a gift for her. Maybe he'd been a crime boss, ruling the streets with an iron wing and striking fear into the hearts of his enemies! 

She shook her head as she paced. That was a silly thought. Ducky wouldn't hurt a fly. It had to be an internal job. Someone who knew Ducky's constant whereabouts within the tiled sanctuary of the downstairs bathroom. The only people to go into that bathroom were herself, her father, her mother, and--

She froze, wide eyed as it suddenly hit her. Of course! It makes complete sense! Only one person had access to the entire house besides her parents and herself, and had been in that bathroom as often as the rest of them. One person had it out for her from the beginning, and only one person knew Ducky's every move. All they needed was time alone and motive. Being the newest member of the Shirogane family, this person probably felt threatened, and so decided to act. There was too much empirical evidence to prove otherwise. 

Naoto grit her teeth and growled. The one who ducknapped Ducky was undoubtedly...

The Cleaning Lady. 

She shot back through the hall and down the stairs skipping two at a time –which was a tremendous feet for someone no bigger than a standard ruler. 

Naoto stopped at the bottom of the stairs at the sound of footprints moving down the hall. She hid behind a floor vase.

Tami, the housekeeper, hummed to a tune from her mp3 player, oblivious of the tiny feline girl stalking her moves through the house. 

Naoto crawled under the low shelf of a side table to watch the housekeeper do a quick little dance move down the step into the kitchen. She needed solid evidence if she was going to present this case to her parents once she found her missing bath pal. 

Kaori walked by in her night robe, put paused when she heard a tiny, high pitched sneeze. She glanced down to the table at a slim navy blue tail peaking out, and smirked. She'd let the little creature play 'detective' for a while. What harm could it do? Eventually, she'd get a bath tonight anyway. The police chief's wife went into the sitting room to enjoy a cup of tea with her husband. 

Naoto uncovered her mouth from the sneeze as soon as her mother was out of sight and exhaled. *Stupid move,* she thought. If her mother caught her, she'd have no choice but to take a bath without Ducky. And the more time she spent away from the investigation meant Ducky could be hurt somewhere. 

She scrambled out, quickly moving from chair to vase to table, and climbed up to a window to watch the cleaning lady move out into the back garden. The old gardener greeted Tami with a smile and the two began talking. Naoto leaned as far as she dare out the window, angling her ears like satellite dishes to try to pick up their conversation. 

“...and I need it to be tasty. I told Mrs. Shirogane that I would do the cooking tonight.” Tami said.

“Well, here's the twine you asked for.” The gardener handed her a small wad of string. “Save me a wing, please?”

Tami chuckled. “Of course. This duck recipe has been in my family for ages. Trust me. I've got this down to a science.”

Duck recipe?! Naoto mewed as her paw slipped on the wet windowsill –moistened from rainfall earlier that day—and fell into the muddy flower patch below. 

Tami and the gardener both turned at the ruckus, but could see nothing that might have caused it. 

“Well, all right, see you later, Shingo.” The housekeeper finally waved and went back into the house. 

Naoto's head popped up out of the flowers. She wiped mud and petals away from her eyes. Duck? Tasty? Cooking? No! She's going to cook Ducky!

Mud and flowers be damned. Naoto sprang from the garden patch, splattering clods of dirt as she ran to the back door. She pulled it open using all her strength –which surprisingly made opening the door easier than ever before—and darted through the house. Her bare feet left staccato spots of mud trailing through to the kitchen. The only creature that would eat a friend of hers was a Shadow like the one that tried to eat the dog demon, herself, and the fox demon. If Tamie was going to cook Ducky and eat him, then she must be a Shadow! The thought that something like that followed her here to this world terrified her. 

Panting to catch her breath, Naoto peered into the kitchen. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the skinny maid remove a butcher knife from a drawer, spin it in her hand –all while still humming contentedly to a song from her mp3 player—and begin to chop up something unseen. An orange triangular object rolled into view quickly before Tami scooped it back up and dropped it into a boiling pot of water. She tied the twine around a yellowish-colored lump on the counter and set it into a pre-warmed tray. 

“No!” Naoto ran into the kitchen, leaving more mud in her wake, and jumped up onto a stool and pounced, claws out, right at the cleaning lady. 

“Huh? WAH!” Tami had just put on the oven mitts when the attack happened. She caught the little cat, stumbling back away from the stove. “Naoto! Stop!” Her heart raced. She couldn't ever catch anything in her life but a cold, and thanked karma for letting her be this amazing to avoid getting scratched to pieces.

Naoto swiped and clawed just out of reach, yelling, tears flowing down her face. “Ducky! Ducky!” Curse being so tiny! If she were Human-sized, she could avenge her friend.

Kaori rushed into the kitchen. “What's going on in he--” She gasped. “NAOTO SHIROGANE!!”

Naoto's froze, claws out, tears steaming down her face, very distraught and sobbing. 

Her mother huffed over to take the cat demon from their scared housekeeper. “Tami, are you all right?”

“A little nerve-wracked, but I'm in one piece.” Tami checked herself over for scratches. Thankfully, she only had one or two small ones. 

“Ducky!” Naoto tried to squirm from her mother's grasp, but the older woman held on. 

“Ducky?” Tami blinked. “You mean... You mean you think THAT'S your rubber duck?? That's a mallard I bought shrink-wrapped from Junes! Why on earth would I cook a rubber bath toy?!”

“Naoto, why would you think such a thing?” Kaori sighed and left the kitchen with her. 

The animal-demon went into a rampage of how all the clues fit that the housekeeper was the kidnapper, but of course, all of that came out in her language. “Shadow!” She cried out, pointing at the cook. That was the only thing she knew of that would eat her friends. She could barely speak, but the only word she could scream out repeatedly was, “Shadow! Shadow! Shadow!” 

“Shadow? Naoto, what are you talking about?” Kaori set her down on the floor. “Tami did not take Ducky.”

Naoto's ears flattened, even as she still cried in quick hyperventilated breathes. 

“Calm down and breathe. I don't know how you came to that conclusion in your head, but attacking her was very, very wrong. We are detectives. This is not how justice is accomplished, and this is not how a Shirogane behaves. Now, apologize to her. I mean it. Right now.”

Naoto forced her eyes up to the face of the housekeeper. Mud splattered her clothes. “S..Sorry, Tami.”

Tami knelt down. “You thought a friend was in trouble. I get that. You really did scare the crap out of me, though. Just know I would never hurt you or anything you cared about. I'm sorry you got so scared.”

Naoto drew her arm across her nose in time to a sniffle. 

Her mother grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe off the small creature. “Look at you. You're covered in mud. What did you get into?” She removed the hat and cape so they could be cleaned, and stood. “Let's go look for Ducky together. Then you seriously need a bath, young lady.”

Naoto frowned, feeling ashamed, but followed her mom down the hall. She supposed a bath was a fitting punishment for her crime. Yet, if that wasn't Ducky, then where was he? Her friend was still missing in action. “Where?” Naoto finally managed to spit out the word. “Ducky?”

Kaori opened the bathroom door again. “He's in here somewhere. He never moves. Look around. A good detective scopes out the crime scene first before making any assumptions. There's no such thing as a minor clue. Everything can hold some use.”

Naoto padded around the room, looking in the sink cabinet, in the bathtub, and behind the shower curtain. When she pulled on the basket holding dirty towels, her eyes lit up. The little yellow rubber duck lay on its side staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. “DUCKY!” Naoto squeezed the toy tightly enough to make it squeak. This time, tears of joy escaped. He would never be out of her sight again. Her friend hadn't been chopped up or tied up to be cooked for dinner. That piece of orange-thing on the counter must have been a carrot. How stupid could she be to think anyone would want to harm Ducky. And yet, she was too happy to let it bother her anymore. 

She let her mother take the muddy clothes, and climbed into the tub holding the duck. She let it float so she could push it around the edge in a circle through the suds. All fear and sadness washed away with the soap and mud. She giggled. 

Kaori exhaled, tired, but smiled anyway. “Ducky's been found, and no one got hurt. What do you say when an investigation comes to a conclusion?”

Naoto's ears twitched as she smiled and hugged the toy close. “Case closed!” 

Kaori nodded through a disarming smile and left the bathroom door open to make her way back to the kitchen. “And now to pad Tami's paycheck with an apology bonus.” She knew the younger woman had a daughter of her own about 7 years old, so dealing with a small child's instant rage-reaction would be old hat for her. She didn't know how old Naoto was, but she had to be young enough to still instinctively react like a child even if she could seem mature at times. She went through a mental preparation to explain this to her housekeeper. “I can only hope she'll understand.”


End file.
